PITTSBURGH — Paul Skenes is currently down at Spring Training readying for the upcoming season, but isn’t making any major changes to his preparation.
Eno Sarris of The Athletic spoke about Skenes on MLB Network and said that Skenes was going to add a new pitch to his arsenal, which is a slower version of his sweeper, called “the sleeper”, to accompany his sweeper.
Skenes spoke to the media at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla. for the first time at Spring Training and denied that he has a new pitch for 2026, saying he had no idea what they were talking about.
“I genuinely have no idea where that came from, so I couldn’t tell you anything about it,” Skenes said to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Skenes also said that he’s not working on the cutter for next season and will stick to his normal pitch-mix.
“No. It’s just pretty much the same stuff, hopefully better,” Skenes said. “But yeah, no more made-up pitches.”
Why Skenes’ Sweeper is A Great Pitch
While Skenes says he isn’t throwing a slower sweeper, there’s no reason Pirates fans should worry, as his actual sweeper is one of the best pitches in all of baseball.
The sweeper served as Skenes’ second-most thrown pitch in 2025, second to the four-seam fastball, and his most thrown offspeed pitch, at 15.8%, according to Baseball Savant.
Skenes averaged around 84.5 mph on his sweeper, with a 5.7-inch rise and a 11.4-inch break. It also has a 32.8-inch vertical drop and a 5.7-inch vertical break, with the horizontal break at 11.4 inches.
His speeds on his sweeper varied, going from as slow as blow 80 mph and as fast as almost 90 mph. It also had a 37% active spin and a total movement of 12.9 inches.
Sep 10, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes (30) throws during the second inning against Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images | Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images
The sweeper was one of Skenes’ best pitches, posting a run value of +9 according to Statcast, the third best for a pitcher throwing a sweeper in 2025.
He also got a .150 batting average on his sweeper, a 32.9% whiff rate, struck out 30.1% of batters on the pitch and 20.7% put away rate.
Where Skenes’ excels with his slider is his ability in disguising the pitch, with a late, horizontal break that can get over zealous hitters easily.
Paul Skenes, Wicked Back-to-Back Sweepers. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/5AMVxM2fSv
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 2, 2025Looking at the Rest of Skenes’ Pitch Mix
Skenes has a vast pitch mix, with seven different choices he can go with against any batter he faces.
His four-seam fastball is the most used (38.9%), then the sweeper (15.8%), then a split-finger fastball (13.5%), a changeup (10.9%), a sinker (10.4%), a slider (5.6%) and then finally the curveball (4.8%).
Statcast gives his four-seam fastball, which he averages around 98.2 mph, a +20 run value, making it the sixth most valuable fastball and eighth most valuable pitch in all of baseball in 2025.
His changeup had a +9 run value, would’ve tied for the fifth best in baseball, had he qualified, as hitters posted a .103 batting average against it.
People have referred to one of his pitches as a “splinker”, a combination of the speed of a split-finger fastball and the movement of a sinker, but it’s likely he goes to more traditional pitches this season, keeping it simple as he tries to defend his Cy Young Award in 2026.